Bruno Haible wrote:
>> I had already converted tests/test-xstrtol.sh.
>> This continues the process with the other test-xstrto*.sh scripts
>
> What are, in summary, the benefits of init.sh? I'm wondering whether
> we might be putting in features here that are not available tests
> written entirely in C.
Hi Bruno,
That is definitely the case.
This could be an argument for wrapping some of the C-only tests in a
simple init.sh-using driver (maybe even automatically). Any test that
creates a temporary file would benefit.
> As far as I can see, init.sh
> - allows to use $(...) and similar unportable shell features,
> - allows to drop $EXEEXT from executable names,
> - interoperates better with automake's parallel tests mode
> when tests are skipped,
> - allows the user to enable verbose output, by setting an environment
> variable,
> - provides a library of shell functions.
>
> What else, did I miss?
Related to your item #3, the test is run in a carefully-named subdirectory
(random/safe, via mktemp or portable replacement), which has two benefits:
- tests run in parallel do not interfere with each other (assuming they
stay in the auto-cleaned subdir)
- test writers no longer need to obfuscate temporary file names
by making them include the PID or the name of the current test.
That improves readability.
